Well, no turning back now.

[MeadowStationVines]

Well thought I should post an update now that summer is just about over. Had couple of surgeries I wasn’t planning on slow me down a bit but the wife seems to have done a nice job keeping up with things.
Other than a few visits from a deer friend of mine who did some early pruning they seem to be doing OK. Plan is to put the deer fence up this fall so we shouldn’t have that problem next year.
The Brianna’s (first 10 plants in left row bottom picture) seem to be a bit slow going compared to the others but since it is my first year not really sure what to expect.

 

[ibglowin]

Looking great for the first year. I wish I had soil like that!

 

[MeadowStationVines]

So I have been searching the forum looking for fall/winter watering advice, most of what I saw was “stop watering about a month before first frost”. Ummm well it’s a little late for that seeing how we got 3” of snow and hit 22 degrees last week. I did have enough warning to get the irrigation system drained but I stopped watering like a day before first frost not a month and now of course it being Colorado it is back in the 80’s.
Am I done watering for the season or should I turn on the irrigation and do a few more deep waterings? Again these vines were just planted this spring so I will be cutting them all the way back in the spring to start trunk training.
As always thanks for the advice.

 

[ibglowin]

I would give them one more shot if you haven't had any real precip in the last month. We got almost 6" in late September beginning of October so mine are done and starting to harden off.

 

[shrewsbury]

looks great!
do you plan on seeding in some grass between the rows or leaving them as is?
I love the views you get from your vineyard, nice scenery!

 

[MeadowStationVines]

Thanks!
We will plant something in the alleys just not sure what yet. I would like to plant a cover crop that adds nutrients back into soil but have not really spent much time researching yet as I read somewhere that it is best to wait until year 3 so there is no competition with the vines. So for now we will keep tilling the dirt.

 

[CTDrew]

Looking really nice, before you know it you will be harvesting! I like fescues and clovers here in the east as they are easy to keep mowed. I don't know what would be best for you but something that takes mowing makes easy upkeep and looks nice too.

 

[VillaVino]

Be careful. Your 80 will turn into 800. I have Marquettes, Briana and Louise Swensons too. The marq will want to bud first. Brianas bud early too. The LS will wait until later. Where are you located?

 

[MeadowStationVines]

Well I have finally found time to get back to the forum. Spring is a crazy busy time at our property and adding a vineyard didn’t help with that much.

Winter was pretty rough on our vines. It wasn’t a particularly cold winter but we had that snow in Oct that ended the growing season last year and then we didn’t get much moisture until January. We pruned in mid-April as our average last frost is early May which seemed like it worked well as we didn’t have any bud burst until mid-May….. But then we just didn’t have much bud burst. As of this past weekend we have 36 vines that show no real signs of life. Thought the wood looked good when we pruned but maybe not. The Arandells are the worst, 18 of the 20 vines appear to have no growth. The wife dug around them a bit and thinks they are still alive so I’m not going to rip them out, don’t have any replacements this year anyways. We will see.

So this is year two for my vines so it is trunk training year. I have decided to double trunk my vines and I have 2 Marquettes that only have 2 canes growing (probably some poor pruning on my part) and they both appear to be bull canes. Longer internode sections and somewhat oval rather than round and one of them is 6’ already. Looking for suggestions on how to handle, it seems I don’t want to use these for my trunks but at this point I don’t really have other canes to choose from. Should I let them grown and hope another cane appears that I can use for a trunk and prune the bull next spring?

As always thank you for your advice.